Enterprise Integration Patterns

Return Address

Pattern Catalog

My application is using Messaging to perform a Request-Reply.

How does a replier know where to send the reply?

The request message should contain a Return Address that indicates where to send the reply message.

This way, the replier does not need to know where to send the reply, it can just ask the request. If different messages to the same replier require replies to different places, the replier knows where to send the reply for each request. This encapsulates the knowledge of what channels to use for requests and replies within the requestor so those decisions do not have to be hard coded within the replier. A Return Address is put in the header of a message because it’s not part of the data being transmitted.

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For a full description of the pattern see:

Enterprise Integration Patterns
Gregor Hohpe and Bobby Woolf
ISBN 0321200683
650 pages
Addison-Wesley